Scars Like Yours
by theytalktome
Summary: Michael Cole was just that: Michael Cole. A short, little announcer with no business even considering taunting The Viper. (Slash) (Request)


The Viper quietly moves under the sheets, a storm forming in his head while his latest husband shifts and moves away - in no mood to be woken back into the stressful day he had today. Cole was cooling down from threatening to leave Orton and everything they had together - jeopardizing the recovery of the situation was far from wise.

The Viper had never thought something so vile could reside in Michael, his eye blackened from an altercation in the announcer's locker room. Cole thoroughly loved to bask in the light of showing off the unlikely fact that he could overpower Orton, simply based on the deep routed fear Batista had cast over him, fearful of wrongness and the subsequent rejection… to show everyone he could be dominate over The Apex Predator. Cole could do anything, and he loved that fact. It was not the first time. The locker room incidents had been nothing major until now.

Randy nuzzles into his pillow, letting the soft fabric cushion his abused eye. He doesn't want to cry, not while he's thinking about leaving the broadcast journalist and going "home" - the idea of his previous home was enough to make the tears fall. He misses his ex more than anything. Everyone had turned out to be more than right about Cole - not only was it a bad, stupid choice, it was the biggest mistake he had ever made. He was loyal to Dave Batista, he really was, and shown their ten year long relationship the door just to enjoy romantic-attention from some idiotic, mousy little announcer. Randy had already assured himself that he was an adult, a mature man well past the innocent, meaningless stages of flowers, watches, little trinkets and things that had frankly questioned his manhood and made him wonder if Cole assumed he was a Diva… and still he abandoned everything he had with Batista for it.

He rolls out of the bed, his tattooed arms laced around his own body as he wanders the halls, their home absent of anyone else that captured Orton's vulnerable heart. He had tried in vain to confide in Ted and Cody, long before the two had gone their separate ways with Damien Sandow and Ted back home to his family. Randy's confession that he wanted to go back "home" to the man he suddenly started to re-refer to as his "husband" - Dave. The Viper had made a point to not let either of them see him break down, he had concealed everything during the ten years, and not once in his memory did he cry in front of either of them - but there he was, throwing himself in DiBiase's arms, sobbing like a child and wishing he had never done what he did.

He had never seen either Rhodes or DiBiase react in such a way of disgust. Ted's open palm collided hard with his cheek, reacting out of anger and disbelief. Randy was nothing short of severely abused - he was still in pain and marked from what was done to him by the man he was claiming to love all over again. Cole had done everything he could, and succeeded in recollecting and putting back the pieces of the man Randy Orton truly was, he was improved, happy, remarkably healthy and optimistic; he was the Randy that they knew and loved before everything had been ripped from him at the hands of Batista. For that, they had learned to love Cole. They saw a few signs of the same old shit repeating it's self - as Randy convinced himself that he needed to be physically corrected to become something ideal - but Michael Cole was just that: Michael Cole. A short, little announcer with no business even considering taunting The Viper, much less lay a hand on him, raise his voice or merely look at him the wrong way; they hadn't believed it - no one had.

Now Orton wanted Dave back more than anything, regardless of how badly abused he was then. He tried so hard, so faithfully and so very much in vain to make Batista happy, happy with him, with anything. There was nothing on the latest dirt sheets of a new person entering The Animal's life - and Orton hoped and honestly prayed that he was waiting for him to realize what he had done and come crawling back.

Michael had already proven he no longer wanted Orton, he wasn't proving himself very worthy of keeping around anyway. Randy would have left everything behind if it meant going home and throwing himself in Dave's arms tonight. Tonight the older man had even said it, the reality felt worse than he expected.

Orton settles onto the couch. He convinces himself that Dave was not as bad as he had made him out to be - as everyone who spoke poorly of him had. Randy figures if he had just listened better, acted more respectful and took the medication his doctors gave him so his mind wouldn't try to overpower him, maybe things would have been better. If he apologized more, took the responsibility for what he had done to make Dave so angry - Randy's head falls back into the couch, his eyes shut tight to try and avoid tears from escaping his eyes. He swallows hard, the idea of killing himself sitting on his mind between taking shaky breaths and opening his eyes to the view of the kitchen; the voices residing in him made it clear that he was capable of the act. He hadn't heard those voices in so long, it was foreign and shocked him, like someone sitting right next to him was tempting him with the knife he desired. His eyes open wide at the voice, but his body leaps off the couch at the hand on his shoulder.

Cole stands there, staring until his face drops into concern and he stops approaching when Orton instinctively backs away from him. He's not even sure how to ask him what was wrong until the words just fall out of his mouth in such a random fashion - too busy trying to take in the sight of The Viper as this emotional wreck in front of him, wiping snot on the back of his hand and tears having spilled down his sharp cheek bones.

"I just want to go home…"


End file.
